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Shadow 5.10
|previous=Shadow 5.9 |next=Shadow 5.11 }} is the eleventh chapter of Shadow. The Mathers' mind-based powers prove to be as terrifying as they sound. The pressure builds and comes to a boiling point, and Damsel unburdens herself of an annoyance. Plot Victoria warns the group about Valefor's power, advising them to avoid eye contact; as Sidepiece succumbs to a command from him without looking at him, however, they realize that something is wrong. Their attempts to escape are stopped by a command from Valefor; Victoria and others try to attack, but are similarly deterred. Valefor forbids powers and weapons; he talks to Victoria, chiding her for not obeying the messages from Mama Mathers to help them, and orders her to serve them. Caught in a flurry of emotions and memories, Victoria releases her aura and the Wretch, distracting Valefor and giving others the chance to attack. After a brief scuffle, Valefor regains control over the situation, paralyzing everyone except the Fallen and forcing Victoria to calm down. Damsel's begins to flare, interrupting Valefor as he begins to force the attackers to pledge allegiance. He orders her to kill her friends, but is caught off guard again by an attack from Chris, whose Dark Introspection form is resistant to Master abilities; he goes for Valefor but is hindered by several other Fallen capes, and conflict resumes. Taking advantage of the distraction, Victoria removes Valefor from the area and deposits him far away, lessening the compulsion to serve. The remaining Fallen soon retreat, leaving the Hollow Point villains and hero group to regather themselves; deciding to stay in the camp, the heroes try again to establish a truce with the villains. Beast of Burden refuses the truce, against the wishes of the other villains; Love Lost expresses her support for a truce, swaying Beast of Burden's position, but not before he knocks Damsel to the ground. The two groups continue through the settlement, where Prancer's group, the Undersiders, and some of the Wardens are occupied fighting other Fallen. A text from Looksee confirms the location of the hostages at the south end; flying to get a better view, Victoria catches a glimpse of the Fallen's anti-thinker measure. As she tries to direct the group to the hostages, Beast of Burden again strikes Ashley to the ground; she retaliates with a blast through his chest. Major Events *Ashley kills Beast of Burden. Trivia *Valefor's power is revealed to have changed to accommodate his blindness; rather than being based around eye-contact, it's now based around voice, but less potent in effect. Skitter inflicting said blindness two years ago,Imago 21.3 appear to have not been public knowledge, as Victoria's information about Valefor's power is from prior to this change.“Valefor,” I said, just loud enough for the others, Damsel included, to hear. “Hypnotist Master. I wrote about him in the document. Don’t look him in the eyes.” ... We’d been prepared for Valefor as he was, with outdated records and a printout of a wiki page that had been salvaged from someone’s laptop after the slow process began of rebuilding the internet. - Excerpt from *This chapter expands on the formation of the PRT and Watchdog, and the first several PRT case files, specifying Case 0 as Scion, Case 1 as The Siberian, Case 2 as Behemoth, Case 3 as the virus theory of powers, and Case 4 as The Player. Case zero was Scion. He was also, I presumed, the last case. Case one was the Siberian, technically the one who had first started the case files, as the PRT consolidated old data and tried to get information from other government agencies. Case two was Behemoth, his rise had incited the creation of the PRT. The case series had been an excuse to gather data from international agencies, too. Case three was the lie of the virus, an early claim about the origin of powers, propagated by an early online newsgroup. Case four was The Player, an early Thinker mastermind who had required some greater cooperation across multiple agencies to root out. Later on, The Player would be a case-in-point for the formation of Watchdog and its core purpose. Kenzie’s would-be group. The first cases had inspired things, major functions and interests. Committees had been formed and those committees had become something. Even though a whole chunk of the early ones were minor or fabrications in the end, the virus theory included, they’d led to things like a dedicated parahuman science department. - Excerpt from *In response to Valefor's order not to use powers, weapons, or tools, Damsel seems to start to try and remove her prosthetic hands, referencing how they channel her power, and possibly hinting at how she thinks about them.She pulled her hand away from her forearm. There was a hole where she had dug her thumb in under the skin. - Excerpt from **Additionally, in response to Valefor's order to kill her friends, Damsel also momentarily looks at Victoria, indicating their growing friendship.“Cease,” Valefor said. “Let’s distract you. Kill your friends.” Damsel wheeled around, turning toward Nailbiter and Sidepiece. Then she hesitated, looking up at me. - Excerpt from Characters Site Navigation